{"id":191346,"date":"2022-10-26T07:15:29","date_gmt":"2022-10-26T11:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=191346"},"modified":"2022-10-25T14:53:51","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T18:53:51","slug":"meet-the-undergraduate-researcher-sarah-marze-school-of-fine-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/10\/meet-the-undergraduate-researcher-sarah-marze-school-of-fine-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Undergraduate Researcher: Sarah Marze, School of Fine Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Marze\u2019s research involves microphones, not microscopes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019s one of seven student recipients of 2021 UConn <\/span>IDEA grants<\/span><\/a>, which support summer projects in entrepreneurship, community service, research, and the arts. With her classically trained vocal background and majors in voice performance and music composition, Marze (\u201823) already had an impressive portfolio.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But she knew that she wanted to take her work to the next level for the IDEA grant. She decided to bring it back to the place where she first got her start in composition\u2014high school classrooms.<\/span><\/p>\n

The resulting project, entitled \u201cLet Us Sing!,\u201d is a collection of six art songs\u2014short pieces composed for piano and a solo vocalist\u2014geared toward high school singers, anchored in Marze\u2019s study of vocal pedagogy. Marze created a set of beginner, intermediate, and advanced difficulty songs for higher voices, and a corresponding set for lower voices. The songs, she says, all have \u201cstrict parameters, so they work for a lot of different developing voices.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Writers from the Connecticut Poetry Society worked with Marze to provide the lyrics. Many of these poets are current or former teachers, giving them a sense of the themes that would resonate with high school audiences. Her collaborations with these local poets were natural continuations of her engagement with educators and mentors throughout her life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI got to work with composers a little bit in high school, and I found that to be a really empowering experience as musician,\u201d Marze says. \u201cIt’s really shaped who I am as a student and musician. I wanted to give back, especially, to the high school age group.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet Us Sing!\u201d is designed to provide students with engaging, accessible performance pieces from a young, contemporary composer. It was motivated by the gaps in the existing repertoire of similar pieces for young voices.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAny voice teacher can tell you that there is a dearth of contemporary art songs that are vocally appropriate, emotionally appropriate, and financially accessible for younger students,\u201d Marze explains on <\/span>her website<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"Two
High school singers Emma Banton and Kyra Rook enjoy UConn Dairy Bar ice cream as a reward for helping Marze workshop the song series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working with Constance Rock, coordinator of applied vocal studies at UConn, and Kenneth Fuchs, professor of music composition, Marze compiled a book of sheet music and instructional guidance for each song. Her final research task was to demo the songs with two local high schoolers and their teachers in a collaborative workshop. Afterward, everyone got ice cream from the UConn Dairy Bar to celebrate.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This hands-on teaching experience helped Marze solidify her pedagogical takeaways from completing her IDEA grant project. She transformed her understanding into thoughtful notes that accompany the pieces in the book. (She notes that the song \u201cHush,\u201d for instance, features \u201crepeated \u2018shh\u2019 sounds [which] are ideal for teaching beginning breath support.\u201d) The finished project is a testament to her conviction that \u201cartistic endeavors are research.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the same way that science is necessary for furthering human knowledge, music and art are really necessary for furthering the human spirit,\u201d she says.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With \u201cLet Us Sing!\u201d now complete, Marze has turned to work on her honors thesis project, a rhapsodic piece for solo clarinet and chamber orchestra called “Morning Rhapsody.” She’s also wrapping up an auspicious undergraduate career studded with other composition and performance highlights, like her \u201cSongs of Salem, 1692\u201d song cycle memorializing the Salem Witch Trials.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marze sees a multifaceted future for herself after graduating.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing to know about people in music is that we all tend to wear five hats,\u201d she says. \u201cI want my career to be a combination of performing, conducting, composing, and teaching.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Materials for \u201cLet Us Sing!\u201d are available for free educational use on <\/span>Marze\u2019s website<\/span><\/a>. To the songs\u2019 young performers, she writes, \u201cI ask that you sing with your whole heart! Making your audience feel something is more important than being \u2018correct.\u2019\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marze<\/span>, alongside high school singer Emma Banton, <\/span>will be <\/span>performing<\/span><\/a> the pieces from <\/span>\u201cLet Us Sing!\u201d <\/span>in the von der <\/span>Mehden<\/span> recital hall <\/span><\/span>Monday, <\/span>Nov. 4, from 5-6 p.m.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

October is the Month of Discovery, when undergraduates are introduced to the wealth of research and innovation opportunities at UConn. This month, enjoy profiles of outstanding undergraduate researchers on UConn Today, attend a full slate of programming<\/a> on campus and online, and register for Discovery Quest<\/a> to launch your undergraduate experience to new heights.<\/em><\/p>\n

Students interested in learning more about research and innovation opportunities at UConn can check out the series of events offered as part of the\u00a0<\/em>Month of Discovery<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow UConn Research on<\/em>\u00a0Twitter<\/em><\/a>\u00a0&<\/em>\u00a0LinkedIn<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Marze ’23 tailors her musical compositions for high school students and their varying ranges of vocal development. This profile is part of a series for UConn’s Month of Discovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":191520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1711,156,2076,1914,2235,2458],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2413],"class_list":["post-191346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-profile","category-research","category-sfa","category-today-homepage","category-undergraduates"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-29 19:09:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191346"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191517,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191346\/revisions\/191517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/191520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191346"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=191346"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=191346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}